As I was keeping an eye on my guest, Robert and Simone returned to the mighty Subaru packed and ready to go. I casually walked over to the water jugs provided to us by Madison and filled my bottles and camelback, along with the water bottles of my friends. I walked back to my Subaru under the watchful eye of Judy’s compatriots, who were standing about 25 yards from the car. My confederates used their bodies to screen Judy and me from the group. I grabbed Judy’s wrists and affixed her hands to the dog cage in my car with a zip tie from my go-bag. I covered her mouth with a piece of duct tape I had in the storage compartment to ensure her silence for the time being. To the casual observer, it looked like Judy was lounging in the back of my car having a conversation with Simone and Robert.
As we mounted our bikes to leave, I said to Judy, “Just to recap, if you try to warn your friends, I will shoot you.” Judy glared at me with undisguised hatred, her eyes bulging and her face turning red. I leaned down towards her and gave her a sympathetic look, “Judy, I don’t bear you any ill will, but this is a new world, and you have to get with the program. Do the right thing and get these people to move and out of Madison and get home. You should team up with some of them and get home as soon as you’re free so you can protect your own. Please, from one cop to another, take my advice. To emphasize my point, I gave her a hearty slap on her butt cheek and causing her to yelp through her duct tape gag.
I rode away from the training ground at a casual clip followed by Simone and Robert. As I suspected, the group did nothing to stop us since their fearless leader appeared to be taking a nap in the Subaru, and not raising Cain as we left. As the fairgrounds receded into the distance,I said to my two companions, “Let’s head for this variety store I know about 5 miles away and see about getting some additional supplies for our journey.” They both agreed and we headed east out of an eerily quiet Madison, with all of us knowing that it would not remain quiet for long.
Chapter 4
After riding away from the fairgrounds for thirty minutes, I knew that Judy and her crew were not chasing us. I had hoped that some of the people we left behind, began to think for themselves and pull up stakes for home, but I knew that they were probably still in the parking lot, waiting for Madison PD or some other authority figure to come and “rescue” them. One thing I know about cops is that nobody wants to be “responsible” for anything be it personnel or equipment for fear of getting jammed up with the powers that be,so the default behavior was to do nothing. I wasn’t angry with any of my former classmates, so I sent up a silent prayer that a few caught up to us soon, looking for strength in numbers. I called for a halt behind an abandoned house, and we parked our bikes and started to plan our trip into the store.
“Ok, who has cash?” I pulled out $80.00 and threw it in my helmet I had just taken off. Simone produced $39.00 out of one of her pockets and Robert produced $110.00 from three places on his uniform, including the pocket that held his trauma plate.
Simone’s eyes grew wide, “Damn little man, you got anything else we should know about?” Robert smiled and reached into his trauma plate pocket and produced a Keltec .32 ACP pistol.
I whistled, “Nice hideout piece Robert. But under the circumstances, put it in a more accessible place for the remainder of our journey, ok?”
Robert put it in the top of his sock; it would be well-hidden unless somebody was looking for it. I gave him my Glock and additional magazines since his department prohibited him from carrying his duty gun at training. UW carried Glocks, so it clicked into his holster with no difficulty. He tried to pull it fast, and it worked, so I returned to the plan of visiting the store. We then sat down and made a list of the stuff we would need. Food topped our list, and good backpacks for both Robert and Simone landed high up on the list as well. Once we agreed that the list had everything we needed, Simone placed it in her pocket along with our cash for easy access. We re-mounted our bikes and rolled down the road to the store.
As we arrived at the store, I said, “I would suspect that the proprietors are going to be looking for cash since the credit or debit cards are useless now, so bargain hard, and spend it all because cash is going to become worthless very quickly. Let them think they are taking you for a ride. Soon they will be wiping their asses with the cash.”
Simone nodded, “All right sounds like a plan, but lets not haggle much, I want to get out of there quickly.”
Robert nodded, “I agree, let’s get in quick, get our shit, and get in the wind!”
Simone still had her uniform on so we decided that she enter the store first and let the clerk know about us and what we were looking for so there would be no misunderstandings. Simone would make them understand that we were there to buy, not to rob. I volunteered to stay outside with our transportation. We rode up to the entrance of the store and parked our bikes on the side. I took up an over watch position so we would not be surprised by anybody else arriving in the area.
Simone entered the store to find a middle-aged man sitting behind the counter reading and edition of The Onion. He looked over the edge of the paper, “Cash only officer; we don’t have any power.” He looked a bit closer at Simone, “You’re a bit out of your jurisdiction, aren’t you?”
“That’s right, I’m doing some training in Madison and I’m making my way back to my hotel with some friends. We’d like to pick up a few things if that’s ok with you sir?”
The man put down his paper and smiled, “Sure thing, are you looking for anything in particular, I got a bit of everything around here.” Simone produced the list and the man looked it over, “Well, I got all of that laying around here somewhere, let me help you find it all.” The man led Simone into the bowels of the store carrying on a conversation as he went.
Robert posted himself at the cash register and noticed the biggest German Shepherd he had ever seen laying next to the chair where the man was sitting, the shepherd looked at Robert as if to say, “Hey man, what’s up?” Robert stood his ground and put his hand out for the dog to sniff. The dog rose from the floor to his full height of about 3 feet and gingerly sniffed his hand. Satisfied that the new person was not going to cause any trouble, and was a possible provider of treats, the dog sat down next to Robert. The dog placed his head strategically under Robert’s hand so he could receive pets. Robert could do nothing but oblige, after all; he wanted to keep his hand attached to his arm.
In the store, the man led Simone around the shelves with a cart and picked the stuff off of the list with an expert hand. So far, they found a couple of old canvass backpacks, medical supplies and a poncho half for each of them so they could make a shelter. The storekeeper’s name was Mitch, and he explained the history of the building that was handed down from generation to generation in his family. He explained that initially it was an army surplus store after World War Two, eventually morphing into a convenience/variety store when he took over upon the death of his father. Mitch related that the business was good for the most part but in the winter, it slowed down and willingly provided other mundane facts regarding his little corner of the retail world.
I took a position of partial concealment with the bikes, which gave me a clear view of the door and road going both ways. As I waited, I saw three figures walking up the road. They all appeared to be men, and by their walk and bearing, they all looked to be trouble.
I removed my compact monocular from my pack and looked the three individuals over. They looked like a multi-cultural group of miscreants. One member of the group, a tall and skinny black man walked with what I referred to as the “pimp limp."He hitched his left leg as he walked like he sustained an injury that never properly healed. Most of the time it was a fashion statement because their favorite rap star did it, other times it was meant as a feint to lull an adversary into a false sense of security. As they approached, it looked like he was talking to the others about the store.
As they got closer I heard him say, “This old bastard is going to be easy, he won’t fight us ‘cause we got guns. We c
an help ourselves to all his shit and then take care of him as we leave.”
His two friends, a big corn fed white kid I nicknamed Baby Huey, and a fat Hispanic kid I tagged as Senor Manteca both laughed evilly. I saw them pull out handguns from under their shirts and work the slides like in the rap videos they watched.
I called softly to Robert and let him know that company was coming, and took a position behind the engine block of the Buick I was using as cover. Robert faded into the shadows of the store and took up a position behind an ancient cooler to ambush them in case they got past me. Robert called to Simone and let her know what was happening. Mitch’s face and demeanor went from happy clerk helping a customer, to a man of action.
Mitch said to Simone, “Come with me, I have a few surprises we can use on them.” She and Mitch dashed into the back room to prepare for the arrival of the would-be robbers.
As the trio of miscreants approached the store, I bellowed from concealment, “Police, don’t move!”
The trio stopped and looked around, trying to determine where the voice came from.
Snoop looked towards the store, “Hey, we don’t want any trouble,” but the look in his eyes said otherwise. He kept his hands behind his back where I knew he was concealing his handgun.
I yelled, “Drop your guns and put your hands on top of your heads!”
I took aim at Senor Manteca, because he looked ready to start shooting at the slightest provocation.
Senor Manteca didn’t disappoint me. He drew first in my general direction, “Break yourself, bitch” and pointed his gun gangster style with it canted on its side.
I calmly drew a bead on him and squeezed the trigger like I had done thousands of time on the range and dropped him with a single round to the head. The SS109 with a steel penetrator found its mark and ended the foolish wannabe’s sorry existence. His head exploded like a ripe melon and splattered blood, bone, and brain matter all over his two friends, causing them to freeze in their tracks. I put the black kid down with a double tap to the chest, causing him to fall to the pavement in a heap in that nerveless way that said the person was dead.
Baby Huey, clued in to my position from the muzzle flashes, roared and ran towards me gun pointed at me gangster style, pulling the trigger as fast and as inaccurately as he could. I took cover behind the massive old Buick and waited for the fool to run out of ammunition. Before I heard the tell tale sound of a slide racking open, I was startled by two very large booms off to my right and a quick scream from Baby Huey as he went down. I looked up from my place of cover and saw Mitch with a 10-gage double barrel goose gun covering what remained of Baby Huey.
I walked over to where Mitch was standing while covering the bodies with my rifle and Robert went over to the corpses and checked for vital signs, the shake of his head indicated that both were stone dead.
Mitch approached what remained of the white kid and looked him over, “That’s Mark Radley’s boy, Cullen. He was always a no good son of a bitch, and he got even worse when he started shooting up heroin.”
Mitch sighed heavily, then turned and went back into the store. Simone and I took the bodies across the street and dumped them in a ditch, out of view. I thought it was a fitting burial for those who would immediately victimize others when they sensed and advantage. We went back into the store and found Mitch sitting with his dog, Rommel behind the cash register where we first found him.
I asked, “Did you know those other two guys?”
“Well, I know Cullen, the white boy, and I have seen the other two in Cullen’s company, but we were never properly introduced.” Mitch let out a dry chuckle.
“Well, how unfortunate for you that you did not get to meet Mr. Cullen’s fellow sophisticates.”
Mitch sighed as he motioned towards the three bodies, “I was at Khe Sahn in ’68, I did a lot of killing, I just wished that I would never have to again. I know that these guys wouldn’t have left me alive if I let them in so the way I see it, they had it coming.”
Mitch rose from his seat and shut and locked the front door with an authoritative snap, “it’s getting dark, so why don’t you all bed down here tonight and head out in the morning. I’ll supply you free of charge for services rendered.” He chuckled again and led us the back of the store, which was his home for a meal.
We settled into Mitch’s kitchen, and he offered us some canned beef stew and homemade biscuits. Simone offered to make the biscuits and heat up the stew because she wanted to keep busy and take her mind offwhat just happened. Mitch gave her the run of his extensive kitchen with top of the line appliances and an array of pots and pans that would make those cable television gourmets green with envy.
While she puttered away making the biscuits, Mitch, Robert and I sat at the table with a bottle of red wine between us. I studied my surroundings, it appeared that Mitch was pretty well set up, he had a 60 inch flat screen in his sitting room, complete with leather furniture. A hallway led off to the bathroom and his bedroom. Also, set of stairs leading downward into a partial basement and additional bedroom.
I said, “It looks like you got a pretty sweet bachelor pad going on here.”
Mitch smiled and poured himself another serving of wine, “I made some pretty shrewd investments in my early days…let’s say I got in on the ground floor of both Microsoft and Apple. A guy I know from my Marine days was a stockbroker and got me in before those guy’s IPO’s. So I’m sitting on a pile of cash, which is now worthless. I decided to spruce the place up a bit without making it look like it was spruced up on the outside. After all, I don’t like attention and enjoy people thinking I am some crazy old coot that runs a little variety store outside of town.”
I nodded my head and took a sip of the excellent wine, “Mitch, what do you think happened to the power?”
He looked at me over the top of his wineglass and said “well Ben, I think that were the victim of Mother Nature, we got hit with a massive solar flare and, as a result, all of our precious technology is worth diddly squat! Either that or some rogue nation detonated a nuke over us.” He continued, “Either way, we just got knocked back to the 19th Century, and if you think that the Government is going to save us, brother, you got another thing coming!”
I nodded, “I think you hit it on the head, we’re pretty much screwed until people settle down and come up with a plan. I figure we got about 90 days of chaos ahead of us, and then, who knows. I am just trying to get home.”
After dinner and an extremely fine cognac, we talked about how the world would turn out in the near future. With winter coming, I didn’t hold out too much hope for the majority of urban dwellers and the unprepared. As I spoke, I thought that I had prepared pretty well for such an event over the past few years, but I was going to have to scramble in order to protect my precious supplies and my shelter for the coming winter. But I also realized that there were some pretty glaring gaps in my plans. While I was rich in food and a defendable shelter, I was poor in allies. I rarely associated with my work colleagues and my best friend was vacationing in New Mexico when this happened so that left precious few confederates. I did not relish holing up for the winter by myself, slowly going mad waiting for spring. I began to adjust my plans thanks to the changes that had developed over the past day.
The events of the day began to catch up to me, and I began to get tired. Mitch directed us to the living room where he had set up some cots for us to sleep on. He then bid us goodnight and retired to his bedroom. As I drifted off to sleep by Simone and Robert, I wondered what the next day would hold for us.
Chapter 5
As morning broke over the store, I was awakened by the pleasant smell of bacon frying, and a man humming tunelessly. I got out of my cot and saw Mitch in his kitchen preparing a very large breakfast for all of us; with Rommel lying on a foam bed close to Mitch dozing. I shuffled to the kitchen where Mitch was pouring a large mug of coffee for me. He slid it across the butcher-block work surface, “It looks like you need this brother.”<
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I took a long drink and sighed contentedly; this was an excellent cup of coffee, and I immediately looked forward to my next, and possibly last cup of this liquid gold. I looked out into the living room and found that Simone and Robert were nowhere to be found, so I asked Mitch where they went. Mitch told me that Simone was taking a shower, and Robert was burying the bodies we dumped rather unceremoniously in the ditch across the street.
“If you go over and help, breakfast will be ready just about time you two finish with your showers.”
I moved to open the front door and found a shovel leaning against the building. I found Robert about 50 yards west of the store digging a rather large hole. He was pretty far along; I only saw his shoulders and the shovel as it removed dirt from the hole and deposited it in a neat pile beside the deepening hole.
I said with a wry edge, “Thanks for waking me up Robert.”
He looked up from his labors, “I figured since you saved my bacon yesterday, I could take care of this little chore by myself.”
“I didn’t save anything. You were in the fight just like me and without Mitch and his goose gun, we might have had a different result.” I offered my hand top him to help him out of the hole and together we heaved his solid bulk back on to firm ground.
Robert looked down at the ground, “I’ve never shot anybody in the line of duty, I’ve never even drawn my gun, but I watched you raise that rifle like it was a part of you and coolly take those people down like it was nothing. I mean; it was over in about two seconds” he snapped his fingers for emphasis.
I didn’t know where Robert was going with this, “Does it bother you that I took those guys down without a second thought?”
Lights out in America's Dairyland: An EMP Adventure Page 4